first post!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVibtTjReu4

hey anything for a smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QfcKP1W6EM

hahaha i love you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNPvd0HE7Kk

it's all part of an experiment to see if I can talk entirely in Arnold quotes.
I blame this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMBD.....onicles/videos

You sssson of a bitch.

Let me talk to your mother. Get me your mother please.

You're luggage!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC1vAvbGSNw

You psychopathic bitch!

You psychopathic bitch!

Ahaha, those prank calls they had on ebaum's were the best. "JAMIE, PLEASE"

Amazing! Ha ha.

Stop whining!

YOU IDIOT!

You used to be somebody I could trust! I'm detective John Kimbel, you idiot!

Ahem, I'll be quiet now XD

I'M A COP YOU IDIOT!!

Fucking brilliant! <3

Http://www.thenicestplaceontheinter.net/

ButWhoCares?

Hey, they needed something to help with their negative PR.

first post is lame post

it also gets the most attention!

yeah so it shows, you love getting a attention. sad sad

Look at the dude's icon: He's a fucking rainbow. The dude wouldn't know what the hell it means to be normal to save their lives.

Where's the comment favorite button? I need one for this. haha

Coming from a macro guy who's icon is him crushing people?

Certainly the definition of normal right there!

I smell a white knight: A pity, I've always found your type to be the biggest waste of space around.

I couldn't give less fucks about the sparkledog up there, I just find it ironic that some guy into crushing people is commenting on other people not being normal? You're kind of fucked, mate.

I disagree; Besides, your opinion matters little to me.
Now, if you'll excuse me? I've wasted enough time on you.

Well aren't you just the mother fuckin' definition of classy.

He was being nice you're the rood one.

Clearly a child like you knows how to curse, but doesn't know the first clue on how to spell rude.
Man, I love it; you kids these days are the future, and you can't even do something as basic as that? Tsk tsk...

This guy, my sides.

Right? He's gone and blocked everyone in the comment thread about this. 28 years old and still acts like a child.

What a sad man.

Jesus Christ this comment section is so broken, I can't tell who's replying to who.

His opinion matters little to you because you're a big macro fur and can crush all the little puny furs underfoot, right? LOL.

You egotistical ass.

don't worry, they are always that rude. but that is their "normal"

I have to agree.

I don't see how it's relevant: Unless you mean to say that a rainbow faggot who calls "First!" in journals is somehow dismissed in lieu of macrophilia?

One is a fetish, the other is a childish attempt to garner attention- So tell me, how is that at any point comparable? They're in different sectors entirely.

We're not talking about being childish. You called him abnormal for doing it.
If anything, calling first might be annoying, but it isn't abnormal.
The amount of people who call "first" heavily outweigh the amount of people who fantasize about crushing someone under their feet.

I just advise you learn the definition of "normal" before you call someone out on something like that. Annoying or childish is fine, but you're the only one being annoying, childish, AND abnormal by making such a huge fucking deal about it and being in the subgenre you're in.

Which is perfectly fine to be in by the way - I have no issue with macros. But most macros will admit "yeah my interests are pretty odd."

Let me put it this way: if it's a fetish a lot of artists will turn down, it's abnormal. ;P

I am currently in no mental state to debate this with you as an equal;
Thus, I will disagree on your perspective on what we're debating, as the point I am making is not the same as what you're trying to say.

Also: The amount of people who call "First" heavily outweighing macro means NOTHING. That just means there are more idiots out there who are pathetic enough to waste their time calling it, and being worthless attention whores.
So your argument is invalid based on your attitude, your ignorant perspective, and your facts being worthless in this matter.

Hah, I got quite a few macro submissions in my favorites collection, but that's a good one. XD

I swear if your a furry just for attention you need to rethink your life

cute, I'm being hated on for having an opinion that doesn't agree with your own. what happened to furs being, oh what's the word. tolerant?

That's a brony thing now.

"Hated on" is far from what I saw. He posted his own opinion.

If you're victimizing yourself for a post that you even yourself admitted gains the "most attention" and are being called out for being an attention whore, then you're doing just that: Being an attention whore.

People who post "FIRST!" do it just because it's obnoxious and gets you attention, mostly negative attention.

So, you're being "hated on" as you say, not because you have an opinion, but because you're acting like an attention whore who victimized himself simply by being obnoxious.

*sarcastically* ok ok, you got me. I'm an attention whore. you still took the time to participate and respond.

You are my hero for this comment! <3

THIS ^

My two cents' worth: Yes, "first!" posts are annoying, pointless, and maybe kind of sad. That said, I'm far more irritated by the dozens of people here who had nothing better to do than to jump on the guy, for something so insignificant, rather than to simply ignore it. Because that's what you do; you ignore such posts and instead focus on the content of the journal ( or submission etc. ). If some of you are offended so heavily by what this guy did, then you have far worse issues than him.

TL;DR: Chill, folks. Moving on.

agreed lmao

Really nigga? Ugh...

Idiots who post "First!" should be suspended. This shit is stupid and immature, not to mention annoying and makes you look desperate for attention.

I fully agree with you there.

haha Thanks, I was hoping someone would. :3

It's basically spam - To be more specific - Shitposting.

Idiots who post complaints about "First!" posts should be suspended. This shit is stupid and immature, not to mention annoying and makes you look desperate for attention.

I'm not the only one to "complain" about it. No need to be mad because I'm right. I have two others who agree with me so far, so that just makes your comment laughable and posted out of being butthurt. :3
Also, not sure how complaining about a "first" post is making me look "desperate for attention," but I'll try to believe you know what you're talking about. ^^

I hate people who think they are oh-so-witty by copying another person's message and just adding, subtracting, or changing some words. Sadly that seems like a very common thing for assholes to do on the Internet.

That's kind of funny though, because that would mean he didn't wanna take the time to come up with any sort of original comment or argument, and instead went to make a response that takes as little thought and effort as possible to post. If that isn't a hallmark of an attention seeker, I don't know what is.

Well said, haha. :3

Petty comments like that don't deserve well though-out responses. And when it gets the point across, what better than to be blunt?
Read my reply below.

If you feel like it was a petty comment, why respond to it at all? Why not just read, disregard, then move on as you seem to suggest doing with comments like "first!"?

Now, I entered this discussion because I saw that Zeezy made a comment about suspending users for spam comments, and it took me back to a time when I would make suggestions to punish people in forums or games for various things, like quitting in the middle of a Mass Effect Three multiplayer match. It's a co-operative player-versus-enemy game, and I got tired of assholes quitting on the team when things got rough, which only causes things to get even rougher for those few who remain, sometimes enough to make them lose. People strongly opposed my proposal to penalise players who often committed 'desertion', even though I worded things in a way to make it so the system would be forgiving enough to let people go if they only 'desert' once in a while (Like if one day they had to be somewhere else and couldn't keep going to the end of the match), but still strict enough so players would be punished if they 'rage quit' over and over in multiple matches within a fairly short time.

People are soft and don't want anything like that in place, even if it'd only slap their wrists if they transgress. They think it's "too harsh" and "vindictive" or some bullshit like that, and I had a good feeling that Zeezy was going to get the same kind of flak that I always did, so I voiced my support.

Just because there are many theists that deny the evolution theory and think that god made the universe/that it isn't billions upon billions of years old doesn't mean they are correct. Using majority rule (if two other people could ever be considered that, jesus tits) as an excuse of "I'm right and you're wrong" is one of the most pathetic reason I've ever heard of.
This notion that you have to complain to someone for saying "first" on something where it does nothing to harm or bother anyone, where the comments upon comments of those degrading the original person for a single word? Yeah, I call that desperate for attention. The people bitching at the OP are more bothersome and annoying because THEY spam the comment box with unnecessary rabble. There is much more on this website to complain about than something so petty as "FIRST!".

In the end, the person causing all the spam is the OP, because they didn't have to post something like that in the first place, and they know comments will follow their post. I think it's time for you to move on, rather than wasting your time here. Don't like what I have to say? That's your problem. Carry on, now. :D

Yea but, you took time out of your entire day, to get so upset as to comment and keep commenting and arguing about it. Its a two way street and while 1st posts are annoying the hate spam is even more annoying because you and the other people who complained and hollered about it could have ignored it. OP didnt hopd a gun to your head and force you to acknowledge him. All of you could have easily ignored him like the majoriy of people did. I see only a handful of people, including yourself that caused a crapfest over 1 comment. One. ONE COMMENT.


So...you can stomp around shouting "I'M RIGHT YOUR WRONG, I'M BIG YOU'RE SMALL BLAHBLAH BABBLE"
all you want to...but I think that placing all the blame on OP is rather immature and childish. He may be the reason why people reacted so harshly but you and the others who got upset are the cause to the real spam. you didn't have to post complaints about it either just as much as OP didnt have to make the 1st post.

Anyhoo those are my thoughts. Its all water under the bridge now since its seemed to die down anyway.

Banning people for things like first-posting and 'I'm quitting forever, nobody loves me, bloo-bloo!' really does raise the level of discourse by an amazing degree.

Only one site I know that bans people who say they're leaving, whether or not they are being truthful, is Blockland forums. The admin on there, Badspot, also has a thread titled "If you don't care, don't post" which simply contains the text "Anyone who posts 'who cares?' or 'no one cares' or similar dismissive statements will be banned."

I don't know if you did it on purpose, but best FA troll, ever.

it wasn't so much "on purpose" but I had refreshed about three times for various reasons, and this came up. usually I'm asleep when it happens, so this was quite the unique surprise for me.

Kind of amusing how many people got butthurt just because you said "first".

Congrats, do you want a cookie?

It's your time to shine!

congrats
not that it matters, much
have a good day

OMFGSJDLKFHJ HOW DARE YOU YOU'VE RUINED MY ENTIRE DAY YOU STUPID POOP HEAD*








*I'm being sarcastic please don't tear me a new asshole

I have corrupted me well! wait a second...

I honestly laugh at the people who get so upset over something so petty haha.

It's like I took a dump in their corn flakes because they didn't get the first post, and since I'm not a popufur they have a hissy fit tantrum.

For the record the one who first replied to you is a dramamonger anyway lol

a lot of furs are full of drama. kind of makes me wonder what happened to the more mature furs out there.

I don't advertise, but at least it's good to know FA is on top of things!

I thought someone pointed out the issue to you...

c: Oh that's good!

Nice icon. x)

Thanks. :D

So I wasn't the only one!

Nice to know it is being taken care of!

We need to modernize this place a bit, don't you think?

It is modern dude

any web developer worth their salt would tell you that you are 100% wrong

I don't think so. Any decent web developer would shoot themselves after sighting the code for FA or go insane and would be sent to an asylum.

Just be glad F/A doesn't look like FaceBook =</.<=

ah okay I will got try to find one fuck for you

Nah, not really... It's simple and elegant. and I much prefer using FA to most of this modern crap, so I like it, because it isn't TOOOOO modern.

but it could still benefit from a few additional features.

This post, ladies and gentleman, wins the internets!

and here come the terrible people who use adblock[including me]
even though, i would never click on any x03

its not a terrible thing, cause thats still a big number, some people just like that extra precaution of using things like Adblockplus, me included

...ur icon...is...adorible, who made ittt? Can u please tell me :3, id appreciate it. N I don't. Use ad block...I just ignore them

i did :3

:D I send u note, don't wanna clutter up the journal :p

Especially those that use phones and tablets who can't get adblock....like me.

Yep. DA takes ages to load on my computer for some reason, so I just kill two birds with one stone and browse both that and this site from my iPod (even though FA works fine on my laptop, I check them both consecutively)

Normally I'd use Adblock but that isn't an option on this >C

You can AdBlock on a phone on several levels.
Mobile browsers with add-ons (like Firefox Mobile/Chrome Mobile) https://play.google.com/store/apps/.....ozilla.firefox
& a rooted Android can block ads all around even in apps. https://adblockplus.org/en/android-about

Life saver T_T thank you

I was about to tease about the lack of adblock use on your Persona 4 android phone, but I take it back before I actually say it

Cause your iphone says a lot lol XD

I like the ads on FA. They are relevant to the fandom and I find new artists because of them! As long as FA doesn't start giving me shampoo ads and dog food ads like facebook and youtube I'll be happy! I come here for furry stuff, so ads about furry stuff are great.

I use AdBlock but not on FA> I hate adds that are annoying, intrusive, invade my privacy and try and sell me things I don't care about.

FA ads are none of those, so they are fine. I even click on them when I see something interesting. I had already opted out of Viglink.

All of these things.

This. I may be biased because I have a campaign out, but FA ads are paid for by fellow furries/ artists.

I agree the less Ads the better, I hate ads they just cluster the web pages and get in your way. If I want something I'll find it. No need to shove it in my face 24/7

I mean like 50% of them are about sex or dating or dating sites, which may contain viruses. 30% are like women and healthy products that no one cares about. 10% of them are junk which you would never be interested in. 8% are about site specific or same topic or genre of the site its hosted on, 2% might be slightly what you may want or need in the future.

I think they should make a web browser designed with a Ad blocker in it.

This, exactly.

Me, too! When I was new to FA, it was how I found artists to watch. I still occasionally find a new artist to watch via an ad.

I like like to use the ads here once in a while, but I don't have a problem with people who want to use ad blocks. Try to show ads to people who don't want to see them is a waste of everyone's time.

Same here. FA is one of the few sites where I disable my Adblock since 1) I don't find the ads intrusive/annoying and 2) some of the ads advertise artists I'm actually interested in. I've discovered some awesome artists by seeing a slideshow of their work in a banner ad here :3

I disable ads on FA.
FA ads are less advertisements and more of the community posting up fliers :P

I have AdBlockPlus installed to block the stupid Toyota commercials before YouTube videos & whatnot - FA's banners aren't near as annoying.

well FA's ads work different to youtube
on FA you can just buy ads and from there on it's just people being exposed to it, on youtube, you don't need to click on the ad to supplement the moniterization of a video
i still block them, because i'm not willing to give them any money unless the contents of the video is good x03

that's good u guy's are getting the problem fix i hope every thing work's out great for u guy's :)

You guys are doing a good job ^D^

Out of interest (probably unrelated) whats the best way to create an AD (i think you only allow .GIF) without loss of quality?? .gif is terrible for compressing the crap out of stuff.

well a gif can be made using png or high quality singular images using https://imgflip.com/images-to-gif

it is what i currently use to make my GIF images and it doesnt lose that needed quality

Gimp can create GIFs and it's reasonably good at keeping file size small without loosing too much quality (google some tutorials for it). Also helps if you keep the number of colors down, the motions simple and a fixed or solid color background.

I use http://gifmaker.me/ Its pretty simple and Iv never noticed any loss of quality

Preparation is key. Use flat colors as much as possible, and if you must use airbrushing in your ad, use clustered details rather than large, smooth gradients.

For cartoon drawings and text, using a selection palette when saving as a GIF, instead of adaptive palette, gives better results. Adaptive palettes tend to produce a lot of spots and graininess. I always favor lots of colors and disable dithering completely. Dithering is supposed to make the picture smoother and simulate more colors, but it usually just increases the file size.

If you have no idea what to do, I can probably help you out.

: 3

It's standard practice to acknowledge and credit the reporter(s) of vulnerabilities, and there's no cost in cash or kudos to do so. I think it'd be good of you to publicly thank them.

Righto, nice work. Carry on! :)

Amazing

A professional and open example of communication. Thank you.
You're beginning to rebuild this user's confidence in your team.

This should've been done away with years ago when everyone first had major concerns about viglink. Which would've negated the need for an apology now. Just saying.

But thank you for being transparent

Viglink was not responsible for the recent issues. We actually stopped using Viglink roughly a week prior to the ad server issue.

Fair enough man

Toumal (SoFurry) and I had a long discussion about it some time ago. Made the decision about a month ago.

Cool!

Why was this not announced?

My greatest concern is that I tried to send private notes while the redirect was going on--but they apparently went through, and I didn't give out personal information when I did. I did not click on anything at the redirected site.

I do wish them hackers would go away, get a job & a life

Amen to that, their talents could be better used on something much more beneficial!
_{It's too bad the bulk of them get their highs from causing trouble, like my brother. >w>}

Technically, that can be their job and life. XD

I'm glad Viglink is gone. It was kinda dirty to make it opt-out rather than opt-in.

Viglink should not have been implemented in the first place. Enough said. I know a lot of people will agree with me.

Hindsight. There's a million things I wouldn't do if I could go back.

So true, man, so true. I'm sure all of us have at least one thing in our pasts that we wished we'd never done.

HEY YOU -- FA STAFF -- YEAH YOU
You probably don't hear this as often as I think you should.
But seriously, no sarcasm, thanks a million for everything!!!
You guys put a lot of effort into keeping FA up and running.
Not too many of us stop and take the time to think... Hey,
I could never do something like this... All jokes on the side,
Thanks for making a place where I can connect with others.
Mark Zuckerberg can go suck a dozen of rotton eggs lmao!

Seriously, all of you working on and for FA... Thanks *hugs*

^ This guy right here

^ Agreed

This.~ ♥ Thanks for keeping it free and working. Good enough for me. ^-^

While there are still bugs and issues that need to be worked on, I do have to agree with this post :3

FA staff get's the shaft from a lot of the users for some pretty petty reasons :I

Agreed, But every fandom seems to have its bad apples.

Oh yeah, that I can attest to. The Sonic fandom on DA is horrendous.
Sure, FA has had a bad staff reputation, but I think they are doing their best now to fix that and at least try to do good by the site and community.
From what I can see at least.

Oh yeah, I can agree with that one. The Sonic Fandom is so bad, It makes me ashamed being a part of it sometimes.
Haha, Thankfully, Me & a few friends of mines are sane Sonic Fans. lol

Oh thank god I found someone who agrees with me on that XD
Most of the ones I have tried talking to get really offended at just about anything x.x

Thank you for thanking. It doesn't happen enough.

Yeah! Thanks a lot for taking the time to read journal comments and not actually read and or respond to the massive pile of tickets that your users have sent in! Golly you guys are swell!

There are plenty of places that you can connect to just like FA that are 'free to use' and are thousands of times better, you just have to know where to look. But I do agree with you on some points, they do deserve some thanks for the laughs! Watching them scramble to keep this place 'functioning' is pretty fucking funny, and is probably the only reason why I'm still here.

*Quagmire impression* ALRIGHT!

They fuck up often-- but hey-- when they fix something they deserve a tip of the hat.

Good thing they fixed it. I could have easily gotten the malware cause I one of those people who slip up and accidentally clicked on an ad with malware.

Thank you FA tech support.

While I do very much so appreciate the updates and info, as well as e extra time allotted for my ad, as all of it has been very helpful, can I make a suggestion? I really think you should stop using the word "transparent" so much in these journals. With the use of it in almost every journal, it seems less like "we're telling you because you, as the users, should know" and more like, "look at us, we are good management, please believe that we are good".

If that sounds rude, I apologise, but that is how it reads to me. I feel that these kinds of journals could hold the same kind of weight, if not more, without the "in the interest of transparency" line in each one of them.

Because we want to turn over a new leaf. I want people to know we're trying to do more, and turn things around. There's a bad history behind us. I want to fix that.

Determination!

I do understand that, and it is impressive to see it happening, I'm just offering a suggestion.

Since you're offering to be transparent I was wondering:

How many ads are currently running in any given month?

Do you still have any thoughts on having a marketplace which to display all current ads?

Do you serve different ads based on rating or logged in vs not?

Thanks!

About 150 at the moment. Not all are paid for. Sometimes I give out ads in exchange for services (ad trades for FAU, rewards for helping kill bugs, etc). We had a page that could display all ads with the last server, but given the way the server was, it could be easily approved.

Ads have different ratings based on your login. While we try to avoid adult art, if ads say "I do mature art!" it only appears on those who have that enabled.

With the new server, can we finally get an 'all active ads' page? :D :D :D

What happens if we're using Adblock?

As Fender said a response above they don't really care if you use Ad Blocker since it doesn't effect the site.

I see.

I don't think ANYTHING can fix that past and if where true we already see a true change without need be remind of it.

I needed a good giggle this morning, and as usual, FA never fails to deliver.

Reading between the lines, here, though, 'neer, since I'm smarter than your average drooling FA fanboy:

We spent the majority of the weekend rebuilding the ad server and upgrading to a new platform all around. The ad server is on a new platform, and has had extra security measures implemented

So... to fix a breach in your shitty code, you focused the lion's share of your time into HARDWARE as opposed to SOFTWARE. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, here, but... I don't seem to recall the hardware being the issue here. The ad server wasn't about to fail, Tom Cruise wasn't abseiling through your roof and narrowly missing crusty, week-old chips on his way to hack your servers. This was a code issue.

Why, I ask, was any time or manpower devoted to the hardware when that wasn't the issue? Or, dare I suggest that this was yet another case of fund mismanagement combined with the practised ease of throwing money at a problem?

But hey. Good job on finally kicking Viglink - only took you... what, shit, three years?

Actually, the entirety of the ad server was software, NOT hardware. It's still on the same server it was before. It's just on a new VM.

Colour me surprised. Seems you took that note to heart after all.

Opinion slightly improved. Don't fuck this up.

I use the term "new server" because it's new VM, updated kernal, PHP and everything else which all the recent security updates and patches and the newest version of the current software we're using. But yes, this was totally software based, not hardware.

That's exactly how it reads to me as well, you're not alone in thinking this.

Agreed. Enough people have stopped donating, complained about lack of progress, and flat out left the site in protest. Like you said, "If that sounds rude, I apologise, but that is how it reads to me." This 'transparency' appears to me as a quite transparent form of frantic backpedaling.

People stopped donating when we lost the ability to use Paypal as a form of donation method. It has nothing to do with people not wanting to support the site.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the constant security issues, staff drama, financial and site mis-management, and general pant-shittery. Nothing at all.

The hecks vigilink

It was a tracking system that tracked what sites you went to for advertising purposes.

Ahh :o
Thanks for answering my Q

Ya welcome

Hey, so, way to inform the userbase about that ad server issue days after you discovered it. In no way could the userbase have used, I dunno, a warning about that issue so they could know how to avoid getting hijacked.

How dare you expect some proactive involvement on this website!

"transparency"

I'm just glad I did my part in pointing out other issues that arose as well.

Good job guys. :) Keep up the awesome.

Ah, the beauty of AdBlock Plus.

it is what it is these days with everything going digital, all attacks are slowly moving from the streets to cyberspace. Never ending battle to fill in exploits and firewall the hackers.

I am pleasantly surprised. Thank you very much, FA.

By the way, how do we find out about how much time we have left in a campaign?

"A vulnerability in third party software we used (OpenX) allowed unauthorized software to carry through the ad server, and potentially inject malicious re-directs to sites serving malware."

which is exactly why I never click on ads and always use an adblocker.

I'm not sure if I got affected. I kept being redirected to some basic mobile site for categorized ads. I didn't report it because it only happened round my friends when I was round there to remove malware so I blamed it on his network...not sure if networks could do that but it was suspicious that it only did it on the journals page.

Thank you for removing vigilink!

TL;DR version:

1). We got hacked. Again.
2). We are finally done selling you out to Viglink and are looking diligently for someone else to sell you out to instead. (Psst. I hear Zuck has some sweet deals going).
3). ?????
4). Project Phoenix.

Hey it works for Valve.
http://i.imgur.com/qIU22P5.jpg

That is epic!

xD

oMG

Thank you FA staff

This^

I have been noticing it ever since Sunday really. It will happen on and off and some times the page just can't load :/

Same here. I had to close and reopen my browser yesterday because I thought it was an issue on my end.

I'm scared now.

I think people should not use adblock on all sites, only those who wreck the user experience on the site having popups, wait x seconds and loads of ads etc

FA do a nice job with just the 4 small ones, they all get my attention and I have seen awesome stuff because of it.

I also make use of the ads for FURSTRE.AM and get loads of attention from the site.

Glad it is all fixed now.

Noticing some slow server host connection to Fa, I posted a comment and instead posted it 5x

This is why I have been looking at Microsoft security forums, PC forums for security tips and tricks, like having a dedicated malware protection(The only thing I am using with my Anti-Virus), NoScript, AdBlocker, and an Anti-Exploit Program.

Well done.

Any news on the FAU kaiju contest?

This right here! I want to know..the results of said contest as well. =(

Same here

Thanks for the acknowledgement! Glad to be of service!

i dont use ABP on FA but i do use NoScript which had [prevented the 1 Failed redirect attempt i got stuck in.

ah good, i used to click some of the ads to view artists, but now i'll just tread more carefully and use the search box instead

lel i posted about this on twitter yesterday i thought I had a virus

ya floosey

whowhwohawoah

we have the same colors :O

I put the STD in stud, all I need is U ;3

ew, you have aids

nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu you said you were clean >.<

you're the one with the STD

geddit

No I put thr Std in stud. Metely coincidence

LOL xD

Glad to hear it. FA was running a bit slower then usual. Thank god I didn't click any Ads. I've noticed people have been saying this and some Skype problem. Could they have been related?

Microsoft is Skype's problem unfortunately. :(

Assuming that the same protocols that left FA's ad server open left skype open yes, though the only problems I've been having are spam video messages, which are easy enough to decline and block.

I'm not sure if Skype servers run OpenX or another program, so it's hard to say either way. //shrugs.

I had no idea it was anything at the time.

I kept getting redirected on here while I was half asleep and ended up getting so mad. I thought it was my phone, turned it off, woke up later and it stopped redirecting me. xp

On a semi-related note to the ad problems, what happened to the submitter name and timestamp on the submission page?

I get this issue on mobile. :T

Dild- actually no, I'm pleasantly surprised you guys are addressing this publicly.

Hooray! No more website tracking via viglink. Oh, wait, I blocked it quite a while ago. Heh.

It's ironic how my friend had just warned me about vigilink last week, I payed it no mind, then this happens I never clicked the ads to begin with but man am I glad I didn't! Also good to know things get solved with care, so many sites go down from these sorts of things.

Viglink stopped being in effect about a week before the redirect issue arose, they were unrelated.

Thanks for the update!

Moving away from the Viglink was a good idea. I don't think it worked in my browser. I use the Windows 8.1 internet explorer app, and clicking on the ad led me to a blank white page. They work now though

Posting in a furry thread.

Furry in a posting thread.

Furry with thread :I http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9576698/

Threading in a furry post.

I'm just gonna use adblock, then if/when I feel like I want a commission but no one I want to commission has slots or is too expensive, I'll disable it. Y'know, adblock doesn't really affect anything. If you're looking, you disable it. If not, even if it was disabled you wouldn't click the ad in the first place.

Nice work unequivocally denying the problem existed before being "alerted to it."

When is Adam getting fired?

Pardon me, after being alerted to it.

And then they found the issue all by themselves... oh no wait... they're taking credit for someone else's intuition.
Had Atkelar not said a thing, FA would still be fucked but it would be our problem of course. >_>

Don't forget Chase.

"open and transparent"

Well that must be new & intresting for you guys!

Clearly, since now they can't post a single journal without including that word.

Open, Transparent and taking credit for other people's work until someone points it out. >_>

So long, ox.furaffinity.net. Hello, rv.furaffinity.net

rv.furaffinity.net Sounds like they have started selling RV's. The Furaffinity road-trip.
</badjoke>

Or they're just 'breaking bad' habits.

We all know sh*t happens. All the time.
Kudos on transparency.

At least, if something happens it is known sh*t ;)
(I mean, you can know where that came from and not be paranoid over all the internets)

Ah, so that explains what the hell was causing FA to go full retard on me for a while. Good to know.

'Sites large and small -- even those like Target...are constantly targeted..' LEL I see what you did there

Yes.

Yes, it's in your profile settings. Or account settings.

One of those settings.

I think its kinda funny (and sad) that a regular update journal has people arguing about normality (see the first 10 comments or so)

To be honest with posters in that first few comments it's really not that surprising that they want to pick away at each other like that.

when it comes to the ads I sadly use adblock so I don't see them anymore but if there was a way I could keep just Fa's ads around I wouldn't mind it

Can't you just disable it for furaffinity. that's what I do.

ah look at that I can do that thanks! haven't really taken a look into adblocker settings

How much were you pulling in with Vigilink anyway?

Like 73 cents a month.

From what I recall, OpenX has a long history of this kind of issue unfortunately. Apparently some recent versions even had a well-hidden and intentionally added backdoor that allowed anyone to run code on the server remotely: http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-se.....vulnerability/ Probably not the kind of software you want to be running.

And what about the people who caught Malware from this mishap?

Are they being compensated for their potential losses?

This site is going downhill, fast. Yank the breaks, or you're going to see it crashing and burning soon enough.

That'd be their own fault for getting Viruses/Malware/Spyware, Not FA.
No site is really safe from Viruses.

Hell, Just yesterday, TweetDeck got hacked.

I've gotten really bad malware from DA's ads before, as have a lot of others I've talked with while I was still on that site. If we ever go report it to them we'd be told "Oh just get a better antivirus". The admins weren't going to compensate for a flaw in the way the ads are coded that allows someone to slip a virus through.

I challenge you to find a example of a website compensating someone that got malware from software that is not maintained by the website.

You might as well try to get something out og google for linkin you to a infected search result.

This sight has been backdoored potentially for a good while, ad user information, passwords files, etc. as a matter of fact, on this server connection as I speak, non-proxy information is being stored. I have made my auto logon disabled until this is fixed, and do suggest others do to.

thank you FA staff. great site. never had a secutiry problem. occasionaly get slow downs but nothing major. I dont use adblock because some of the ads are interesting and most are relevent. this is the only furry site I go to and one of few art sites I go to. I hardly ever check DA anymore because it has a bad habbit of crashing my net. I dont know why people have problems with FA sometimes. I guese I have just been lucky to miss the problems. either way, thank you for the great site for all this great art.

Unlike most I'm willing to see an improvement with the staff as they want to start over with a new leaf. You guys have my support so I won't add my voice to the chorus of "fuck you". You guys do a good job of providing a great website to us for free, there's been mistakes in the past but I think it's time for everyone to try and move on and get on better terms, lot of hard work but I think its very possible =)

What sucks is that I often accidentally click those ads (I use a wacom pen). I hope the kooties didn't come from that :(

ok if anything says open it's security is questionable. not saying that it's always bad!! OpenGL (graphical processing ... THING) is un hacked. (runs like shit on my card but un hacked). things used in servers differ in many ways but the concept stays the same. open stands for (usually) something with a sense of universatility to it. if all the stores used universal shopping carts that people could take to and from different stores than a lot of stuff would happen. going for more complex software will be slower but it will be MUCH more stable. java is universal. but java is designed to be screwed with as one pleases! a server software? not so much. stability on a server's program is pricey but it pays...

but dont try that cuz FA's shit pile of a server setup would never be able to handle that!!

(lol pointless lesson)

What does opengl have to do with anything? It's an open source renderer alternative for hardware that cannot support directx as a main reason.

it was the only other thing w/ open in the name that i cud think of other than OpenNI whish is a program for those friken magical people who can somehow hook up a kinnect to a computer to record motion for animation and such. which it'd be rare for someone to know of that but everyone probably uses openGL if they know or not so i used that

honestly (Double comment OH NO!!!) the viglink issue is stupid the pourpous is stoopid really. all it does is gather preferences for the FA comunity as a whole. google does that daily. if you use google search 3 times (i think i remember that right) weather or not your logged in to ur google account, it actually starts to adapt your search results! if your logged in it saves this preferal data so when it knows its u it'll be nicer! the whole viglink script probably just allies up search entries and noot much more. amazon and ebay were (no ARE you can still 'opt out' under site settings) mentioned which probably means that they pay for such surveyic data to use for whatever they and FA agrees on. i say pay because its also mentioned that it helps keep the site free. im pretty sure it doesnt even track what submission genera is submitted. the thing is is that since FA is completely internal amazon ebzy google or anyone cant put an ad here. the only ads here are in many ways indepentant! being said amazon ebay and whoever really have no use for such data be cause they cant connect FA to anyone else nor can they put up their own ads which apply to trending FA stuff (id actually like to see them try. that would be interesting. seing what they finally come up with for a furry comunity related ad! that should be a promotion!!! ad people pay to put their ads in for the entertainment of the people who will laugh at them for such retarted ad choices!) really if it brings FA some revenue for such non-existent negative effects im surprised FA would even bother! theres a button too!! if people actually cared, which i have heard of no objections what so ever, then just turn it off. if its really that big of a problem then thats one more reason FA should use a profile creating process along side the account creation process. something simple. you could practically copy and paste the HTML for the two main settings pages and use them. it wouldnt be hard and a lot more people would use them ive seen many that dont! you could make a whole page right there asking would you like for us to use your entries in a tally system that makes us mony so we can continue to pull through the shits that the site goes through!

Hopefully that ad server did not use any of the passwords that are used on the other servers. Most likely if it did the other servers are most likely compromised as well.

Yes... I noticed that during the ad server down time, I was constantly being redirected away from FA whenever it loaded a page, making the site unusable. fortunately wherever it was redirecting me to was blocked by noscript, so the page didn't even load, it was just a blank white screen.

I personally got around the issue by using no-script to block FA (I mean, there's not a whole lot on the site that uses scripts... Gallery preview on the user page, and search being the main 2 I notice, so it wasn't much of an issue, and was able to continue browsing), A couple of days later when I noticed the headline said the maintanance was complete I unblocked FA, and everything seemed normal again.

Wow so many people here, this is the perfect place to announce that my art slave auction is ending in MONDAY! Every $15 is any type of art from me! Come and see my journal. K -.- gosh I'm so annoying

What was the big deal w/ viglink?

you guys are working on it, and thats good

Also, the discussion about the first post is why we cant have nice things!

As a user, I very much appreciate your transparency. Great job.

Question! OpenX is now flagging as a tracker in Ghostery when it has never before. Is this normal?

I don't like these ads stacked vertically over the buttons on the bottom of the page, it feels awkward and uncomfortable to see them down there. Is this why they're there? any possibility we can get back to just the two ads in the top right corner of the page? Please?

Did some adds get lost or something? I've had zero activity from mine in two days which is highly unusual. Thought I'd ask in case. :v

So when's Zaush and Chase being fired?

Talk about trouble but at least it got taken care of. It's like how recently a PUP [Potentially Unwanted Program] and ad-ware got by my anti-virus, but I was able to take care of it with an alternate anti-malware program. Thankfully, it had had nothing to do with FurAffinity's ad-server attacks.

They took mah ads!

...I don't have any ads, but they took our jerbs!

I see a new ad arrangement on the bottom of the screen. My question is about the top ones. I use a phone, and the site banner art used to cover part of an ad. Now the ad is on top. (It covers the Furaffinity in the banner...about 1/3?) Just wondering if that was intended so the ads are on "top." (I wished the dropdown menus were like that on my old phone. It kept clicking "through" the menu into the ad, but a newer phone solved that.)